1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to inventory management systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to a system and method for automatically updating inventory level information in response to transactions involving the removal or addition of inventory items from a inventory supply location.
2. Description of the Related Art
A variety of systems are used to track inventory levels and determine a need to reorder one or more supply items. Some of these systems are significantly manual in nature, involving a designated person(s) responsible for dispensing inventory items, as well as ordering and receiving new shipments of inventory items. Such systems having a significant manual component involve undesirable labor costs and are subject to human error. Other systems are highly automatic and may involve dispensing machines that dispense inventory items and automatically track inventory usage and levels. However, such automatic systems may be expensive both initially, as well as being expensive to maintain and reconfigure as inventory needs change. Therefore, in some applications, highly automatic systems may be undesirable.
An inventory management system common to manufacturing environments is the use of a secure location in which inventory supply items are stored. These locations are often referred to as “cribs.” In a common arrangement, the crib is manned by an attendant responsible for dispensing supply items and receiving new shipments of supply items. The attendant usually enters the transactions into a computer inventory system, either manually or through the use of scanning technology, such as a barcode reader, for example.
However, the inventory systems that utilize supply cribs typically also suffer from disadvantages. For example, in many instances the crib is centrally located within a facility and users must often travel a significant distant from their work area to the crib without knowing if the desired item is in stock within the crib. Furthermore, providing an employee to attend the crib increases labor costs and, because entry of the inventory transactions into the inventory system are often accomplished manually, the probability of introducing errors into the inventory system are increased.